1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to animal holding pens, and, more particularly, to animal holding facility with automatic evacuation system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Keeping pets is a never-ending task, requiring one to constantly feed groom and clean-up after their animal friends. For those that raise, breed or board animals, their responsibilities are compounded many times over. This is especially the case with dealing with a kennel structure. The structure itself provides shelter for the animals from weather, attackers, intruders, and the like. But kennels also increase the risk of death due to fire. Newspapers, television and media are all too often filled with reports of dogs, horses, and other animals that were killed in kennel fires. The animals are unable to escape, thus dying from heat, fear, smoke inhalation and the like. Accordingly, there is a need for a means by which kennels can be provided with a means to automatically and safely evacuate animals from a kennel area in the instance of fire.
In the related art, several devices are disclosed that provide for animal traffic control systems. U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,333, issued in the name of Fisher, discloses a collapsible chute for transporting animals or managing them in the confines of a barn.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,923, issued in the name of Mollhagen, describes a portable squeeze chute apparatus and method.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,981, issued in the name of Akins, discloses an animal containment pen with a squeeze panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,773, issued in the name of Akins, describes a squeeze chute apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,543, issued in the name of Silberman, discloses an animal squeezer cage converter.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,691, issued in the name of Wood, describes an animal pen with a door and a hydraulic ram to actuate an advancing means that engages the rear of the animal.
A search of the prior art did not disclose any patents that anticipate directly many features of the instant invention. Consequently, a need has been felt for providing an apparatus and method which overcomes the problems cited above.